Sweeny Todd, the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp musical about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is set on the fast track, making this the sixth venture between Burton and Depp. Sweeny Todd is the story that follows the wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. It promises to be a mix of the comedic, the dramatic and the macabre.
Lauren German (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Heather Matarazzo (The Devil’s Advocate) and Bijou Phillips (Venom) are in talks to star in “Hostel 2,” with Eli Roth (Kill Bill: 2) directing for Lionsgate.
Steven Strait (Sky High) plays the leader of a young group of warlocks in the upcoming supernatural action film “The Covenant.”
The upcoming film formally known as “Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer” has a new moniker and will now be called “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” The sequel, directed by Tim Story, is set to hit theaters on June 15, 2007.
May 2007 will see new entries in three of Hollywood’s biggest franchises to ever hit theaters square-off against each other: “Spider-Man 3,” “Shrek the Third” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
Bradley Cooper (Alias, Failure To Launch) has signed on to star opposite Renee Zellweger in “Case 39,” a psychological SF thriller for Paramount Pictures. The film starts filming this September on location in Vancouver, BC with Christian Alvart directing. Ray Wright wrote the screenplay and “Deadwood” star Ian McShane also stars. The story centers on a social worker (Zellweger), who saves an abused girl from her parents but later discovers things are not as they seem. Cooper will play a detective who is the love interest of Zellweger’s character.
The SF romantic epic “The Fountain,” starring Hugh Jackman (X-Men franchise) and Rachel Weisz
Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-language horror fable “Pan’s Labyrinth” will screen at the New York Film Festival in this fall. Programmers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center selected Labyrinth as the 44th annual festival’s closing-night film. “Pan Labyrinth” takes a fantastical look at the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of a young girl. The festival runs September 29th through October 15th at the Lincoln Center.
Elizabeth Banks (Slither) will be joining Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey and John Michael Higgins as the new female lead in “Joe Claus.”
Disney-owned ABC has curtailed Mel Gibson’s produced miniseries about the Holocaust, however they have decided to move ahead with their plan to distribute Apocalypto, Gibson’s Mayan-language drama, beginning December 8, 2006. The proviso is that Gibson will not be the face out their promoting the epic flick for Disney on Letterman and Leno or the rest of the press junket that normally accompanies promoting a new film.
